I had some leave coming.... Ben had some time off. Logical decision was for Ben to take a visit 'up north' and have a crack for a springer off one or two rivers in my part of the world
Day 1. Monday. The Moriston. OK, so actually this was day two.... but day one actually fishing. Day one was spent casting, terrifying ducks with 50+ yard casts, then casting some more. Oh, then later eating stuff I'd been smoking in my new toy. Anyway, I'd always fancied a crack at the Moriston and as it turned out so had Ben. Decision made. With plenty of snow melt the water was always going to be cold and it was. Very. Anyway, the beat available runs down to Loch Ness and fits (just) 4 rods. We were sharing the beat with a nice Welsh couple who come up every year, more on them later. Anyway, the lodge on the beat is better equipped than most houses
The beat pretty much consists of two big pools and a 'run'. Unless you have snow run off or rain, the hydro system needs to be generating or you'll get naff all water.
The top pool
Remember I mentioned a Welsh couple
She didn't flyfish and the beat allows spinning. First run down and the good lady of this pairing jumped in a few short yards beneath me. I wasn't amused. I was even less amused when this happened
After a long scrap it was successfully landed
I tended that fish (around 16lbs) for 15 minutes in the icy water before it swam off strongly. Nice springer. Bit bloody cold though, my hands were like ice for quite a while after. That was it as far as fish went, I had a 'pull' and Ben had a nice Brownie about 1.5lbs, but no more salmon. Cost:? £60/rod/day at the moment. If you can get on it's certainly worth a punt.
Day 2. Tuesday. The Conon.Very kindly, I was offered some fishing on the Conon. Now this was another river on my 'bucket list' and we were down at the river sharpish the next day. Great water, lovely to fish. My day didn't get off to a great start when I 'blew up' my pride and joy B&W Powerlite Deluxe 15ft
Fortunately, I had a spare and Ben (as always) had brought a mobile tackle shop with him 'just in case' or 'you can never have too many toys' etc
What can I say
We caught plenty of kelts (and a couple of HUGE kelts at that) including (unusually) a couple of cock fish but no springers. Hopefully the pics tell the story:
Day 3. Wednesday. The Brora.Yes, anther one of those rivers I'd always wanted to fish and with some late availability at £30/rod/day it was far too good an opportunity to pass up. A 'quick' run from my place to Golspie to pick up our tickets saw Ben looking suitably 'green' and needing to get on the river and out of my car. I was immediately and utterly smitten when I saw the river for the first time. Cut a long story short.... we caught nowt, despite fishing very hard. Although there was some less than great water most of the Lower Brora is simply lovely to fish, I cannot recall fishing any water for Salmon with more expectation of a fish taking. Never mind, maybe another time. A few pics
Day 4. Thursday. The Ness.
Called off - high water stopped play. So we went casting and would you believe it, we bumped into two world spey casting champions. Amazing the folk you meet
Gordon Armstrong
Scott MacKenzie
OK - there is more to come and I'll tend to that tomorrow night. Right now it's twenty to two in the morning, my session has timed out three times, I've had enough for one night and I'm off to bed
H